This year's guilty pleasure!

Rating: 8/10 (9 August 2013)

Let me start this review by voicing my genuine surprise: why in the world has this movie been so well received? I know that *I* liked it, but I am not afraid to admit that I also liked the Transformers movies, the first Alien vs. Predator, The Grudge, and (here goes) the Star Wars prequels. I can't shake the feeling that if they had called this movie 'Transformers 4', nobody would have noticed the difference. As always, critics would have universally panned it for its over-reliance on big, ear-deafening action scenes, and the majority of moviegoers would have blasted it on every review site, yet somehow earning it over a 100 million dollar in box office anyway. I can only guess that the name 'Guillermo del Toro', creator of such visual treats as Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy, made people let go of their Michael Bay-evoked preconceptions, and enjoy it for the fun it surely delivers. Just like the addition of 'Directed by Quentin Tarantino' can change something from "excessively dialogue-ridden dud" to "wonderfully inspired B-movie homage".
It is funny how many people praised the gigantic CGI-battles in this movie, where they would normally balk at such spectacles as looking fake, excessively drawn-out and so fast it is impossible to follow. Although the 3D didn't make it more comprehensible for me, it did make for some awesome sequences. Nothing we haven't seen before, though: if you know Transformers, Cloverfield, Godzilla and Independence Day, you can pretty much see where they assembled it from. 'Original', as overly stated in some reviews, is therefore not my word of choice.
But, let's be fair: the influence of del Toro does manifest itself on a few occasions. More care seems to have been taken for some of the main characters than is usual in a multi-million dollar blockbuster. Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi get some nice background and motivation for getting inside a big robot and beating the hell out of a group of monsters. But that's about as developed as the characters get. If you've ever seen a recent blockbuster disaster movie, the rest can be easily classified: the loud-mouthed annoying bully who gets to redeem himself; the black man who gets to sacrifice himself (fortunately, he was already terminally ill); the anonymous cannon fodder, and so on.
I love a good bit of comic relief, but the two 'funny scientists' in the movie made me cringe worse than John Malkovich, Ken Yeong and John Turturro did combined in Transformers 3. Fortunately, there's Ron Perlman, del Toro's secret weapon, to show that you don't need to overact hysterically in order to be funny (watch out for the scene during the credits!)
The addition that a Yaeger must be operated by two symbiotically-linked people is a particularly nice touch. So, with such a spark of inspiration, you'd wonder why del Toro would make do with a screenplay that has holes large enough to accommodate the entire Yaeger battalion. I almost found myself yelling such phrases as "why the hell didn't you use that sword three battles ago, saving precious lives and dollars?!" and "wow, a Kaiju with an EMP, what a convenient plot device just when the story calls for some drama!" And how can two escape pods get through that Breach without a Kaiju attached to them? I am eagerly awaiting the "How it should have ended" video for this most blatant disregard for internal logic since they built a second Death Star with another obvious design flaw.
What I won't deny is that Pacific Rim is good fun. In fact, if it was del Toro's intention to make an homage to B-monster movies complete with all its genre flaws and conventions, he has succeeded gloriously. Halfway, I simply shut down my brain and enjoyed, and afterwards, I had a good laugh with the other moviegoers over the many silly things we witnessed. All in all, this is not the presumed masterpiece it is generally taken for, but a typical summer movie I enjoyed for its sheer spectacle and goofiness; I simply did not expect the main audience to embrace it so easily.